Players, Club Officials Throughout Top Levels Of Ecuadorean Football Struggling Financially

This year, teams competing in the top divisions of Ecuadorean football are facing "realities including clubs playing games with reserves as starters have refused to play over lack of payment and footballers becoming sick during practices from not eating as a result of delayed payment," according to EL UNIVERSO. Ecuadorean FA Dir Jorge Guzmán Mancilla said that "250 players from the top two divisions have filed complaints against clubs regarding owed salary; last year there were 100 such cases." The complaints "are not all coming from players alone." Of the cases, 20% involve "institutions demanding that players fulfill contracts." One of the "most affected teams has been Deportivo Quito." Deportivo coach Rubén Darío Insúa "assured that he has not received a single month's pay this year." At the "beginning of the year, Insúa said club execs told him the club expected" to receive between $3.8M and $4M, but the "crisis continues." One Deportivo player, Luis Checa, said "that he is still owed money" from '12. As of June, internal reports from Deportivo and fellow Quito side El Nacional "indicated debts" of $4.5M and $4M, respectively. El Nacional player Marwin Pita, "considers that to achieve good results, club execs should offer more." Deportivo Quito Honorary President Rodrigo Paz admitted that club execs deserve "some of the blame for overspending economically." Paz also said that some of the responsibility belongs to the Ecuadorean Football Federation, which managed TV broadcast rights this year, and pointed out businesses over-valuing players and fans not filling stadiums" (EL UNIVERSO, 11/24).